notthenews

Posted By admin on November 30, 2009

The latest in dog horror stories about the 4 year old child mauled to death in Liverpool http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8386023.stm does nothing to help my intense phobia of dogs and particularly certain breeds of dogs.  Many people have expressed that I have a unjustisfied or irrational fear of these dogs and that I put myself in danger by being fearful.  I have had too many close encounters with undisciplined ‘dangerous’ dogs to accept this fear is unfounded, including the fact that my younger brother was badly bitten by a family pet when we were children.

This lastest sad story happened in an area said to have quite a number of young men with dangerous dogs is not much different from many inner city areas in the UK.  Apparently Merseyside Police held a dangerous dogs amnesty after a previous child death near by and netted 80 illegally-held dogs.   This is a scary number of dangerous dogs being treated as pets.

In his article, ‘Breeding out aggression in dogs’ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/17/weapon-dogs-attacks-traits ) Dave Hill reports that Kit Malthouse, deputy for policing in London, wrote an article in response to a sharp rise in the Metropolitan police’s seizure of canine suspects and of prosecutions of owners under the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act (DDA) calling for some measures to ‘breed’ out these aggressive breeds.

Here are some links to dog stories recently  (3 from the guardian article)
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/4564591.EPPING_FOREST__Vicious_dog_attack_in_forest/ Dog attack in Forest
http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/topstories/3781805.WANDSWORTH__Dog_gang_admit_terrifying_school_attack/ – Dog used to terrify school
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23564264-pianist-is-mauled-by-pair-of-pitbulls.do Pianist mauled
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/london/8368548.stm – Guide dog gets mauled
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/essex/8356000.stm – Dog attacks Police Horses

Of course, the dog lovers are up in arms but how much longer can we blame the owners whilst people especially children are getting maimed and killed?   I do not really care if you are macho enough to make your pet ‘pit-bull’ as friendly as a lamb, many of these young handlers also have a macho image of being able to control such a vicious creature until such time as they get bored and stop being careful.  We have to recognise that some of these dogs have been bred for aggression and their status symbol as pets is dangerous not only for the owners but for the rest of the society.  What is the world coming to when we are afraid to take a walk in the park because of the potential of an out of control dog with an uncontrollable handler?

I am not naïve enough to think that we can stop all dogs biting or even killing but let’s not have any more children killed by these animals that have been bred to do just that!

Maybe this deer with an attitude has had enough to the point of fighting back – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/8303280.stm?

Category: .fb, News | 1 Comment »
Tags:

Posted By admin on November 30, 2009

Many of us who have to work for a living have over the years got used to the idea that if the skills we brought to the market place were ever to become uneconomical, we would be redundant. We would need to re-train and gain new skills to continue with any sort of gainful employment. This is the part of our capitalist system and we, the workers, should understand this simple economic truth.

Why is it then that big corporations think that it should be different for them?  Why do they expect that when the ‘ahem’ hits the fan, they should be saved and bailed out?  The latest in the ‘whinging’ company sagas are the news corporations and the hundreds of journalists that rely on these corporations to keep them employed. 

Rupert Murdoch, the rich owner of News Corp, has been punting the idea over the past few months that we should pay for his news and now, one of the brave, Newspaper publisher Johnston Press, has stepped to the plate by introducing charges to access some of its publications including such impressive titles such as Worksop Guardian, the Ripley & Heanor News, Whitby Gazette and the The Northumberland Gazette, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8385342.stm for more.  Now I am not sure that these are specialist titles but I am willing to put some money on the fact that these titles will either be free again in the near future or gone forever.

Whether Johnston Press are using the Mr Murdoch’s publicity to push the boundaries or not, it could be that they do well to remember that this is the man who broke the unions’ backs many years ago and so it be best to assume that his agenda may be deeper than getting $5 a month from poor old me.  After all, both Microsoft and Google have deep pockets. Google, particularly, financed by advertising revenue that Mr Murdoch would like to see in his own pockets.  Both these parties would be easier to collect from as compared to millions of transactions where VISA and Mastercard and the like rack percentages simply by providing the means of payment.

Does Mr Murdoch believe we the public will pay for news?  He would be missing the millions of comments made about news stories like those listed at the end of this article.  Even the likes of Jeremy Clarkson in his article for the Times – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/jeremy_clarkson/article6936087.ece has failed to convince me that I should pay for general news.  Why? Because many of us do recognise that we would not be paying for news but paying to be force fed the vested interests of politicians, corporations and other powerful entities.  We understand that we may have to pay for our niche interests but more than likely, there is someone willing to spend the time and effort to bring niche news to us for free for rewards other than money.  Citizen journalism can easily cover major events and local events and all we need to remember to take everything with a pinch of salt, just like we should do with these professional news gathers!

On the face of it, Murdoch’s whinging reminds me of the record and movie companies constantly crying about the ‘billions’ in lost revenues that do not appear to translate to big red figures on their bottom lines.  Who feels sorry for them?  Not many of us if the downloading figures are to be believed.

The business models of the many companies that provided the comfort of regular pay cheques for us are under threat and whilst new business models will emerge they will inevitably mean new working practises and maybe even, heaven forbid, new skills.   Journalists, like many other professions including artists, will have to face that fact.

As for the media companies that continue to try and cling on, News Corp is sounding the bell, it’s time for a news change.  Record and Film companies could do well to take notes.

 Some Links to chew the cud over :

http://mashable.com/2009/11/09/rupert-murdoch-google/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8351331.stm
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/bLw8oJcNNhk/http://www.techcrunch.com
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/l7llzWVyze0/http://www.techcrunch.com
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/W7cn8DZQy0s/http://www.techcrunch.com
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ER6jxxsvBow/http://www.techcrunch.com
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/84PuKlLYIbM/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/nov/24/rupert-murdoch-bing-google
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/business/8385342.stm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/jeremy_clarkson/article6936087.ece

Category: .fb, News | 2 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By admin on November 11, 2009

Someone forwarded me a link to phones4u’s home page yesterday and I emailed them to determine whether they had been hacked but have not had a response.  I am sure they did not intend to have Santa having a wee in the snow or surrounded by what look like cans of beer and holding a fag.

But then maybe Rudolf’s mounted head is meant to generate a laugh and a click?

Ok, if that doesn’t do it, what about the hanging turkeys?

In this day of violent video games, who would worry about fighting snowmen wit the victor walking away with his opponents head.

I suspect if this was an inside job, someone is heading for the festive dole line or were they already heading for the door?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

–do not move–

Category: .fb, News | 1 Comment »
Tags:

Posted By admin on November 8, 2009

There have been a few stories over the last week or so about the scam advertisements on social sites mainly Facebook, arguably the most successful social site.  It appears to have started with this commentary – http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/31/scamville-the-social-gaming-ecosystem-of-hell/ on Techcrunch.  One of the Facebook successful applications company’s CEO can be seen discussing his early strategy in an online video where he basically said he did whatever was necessary to have a successful business – see http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8R96Mx4zId8/.  Many of these companies are being held up as successful start-ups with multi-million valuations based on the number of users they appear to be attracting.

This got me thinking about why it appears that it is OK do just about anything to be successful.   It appears that we are more accepting of behaviour that is justified by the ‘success’ culture.  We seem to accept past and present transgressions for the rich and famous and still hold them up as role models when maybe we should maybe vilify them.

Business particularly, especially big, ‘successful’ business seems to be getting quite ruthless in their dealings with suppliers, employees and customers.  Do you really believe that out-sourcing their support to India is about giving you, their customer, a better service?  These days you can phone any one of the FTSE companies and you are likely to be guided via an array of pre-recorded messages with the option to speak to a human being hidden somewhere deep in the menu system.  This phenomena has been brought about by the ‘money’ people, the finance houses that now appear to own just about any sizeable corporation in the UK.  Their success is measured by the value of their shares and not by their business integrity.

We, the customer, need to realize that we are the power that makes these corporations powerful and successful and we can demand they do business with integrity if they want our adulation and our money.

Category: .fb, News | 1 Comment »
Tags:

Posted By admin on October 23, 2009

They keep telling us that we need to pay for our content.  Hulu joins the ranks by announcing a subscription model for their service – http://mashable.com/2009/10/22/hulu-subscription-model/.  The big man in media, Rupert Murdoch says, not the first time, it is time for internet search engines to start to pay for any news reports they currently take for free – http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/business/8298507.stm.

I really don’t think that any service or person is big enough to guide this and I would like to suggest that most of us are just not ready to pay for it.  I mean, if you are like me, with a very wide range of interests from science through to economics and genetics and genealogy, how much of my monthly budget will I need to use to access this content?  

Sorry guys, a new commercial model to support advertising models is required but subscription will not be the way to go.

Category: News | Comments Off
Tags:

Posted By admin on October 5, 2009

You may notice another change to the notthenews.net interface soon after the laste change. I have moved from b2evolution blog software to Wordpress which I prefer. b2evolution, though good for blogging, does not have the same support for extensions as Wordpress. Wordpress also have made it a doddle to install security upgrades and install extensions.

I hope you like. Enjoy

Category: News | Comments Off
Tags: b2evolution wordpress upgrade interface

Posted By admin on October 4, 2009

Despite being an island – and our reputation for wet weather – the UK actually has less available water per head than many European countries including France, Italy and Greece. London, for example, has less annual rainfall than Rome, Paris or Naples.

http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?Document=EV0503_8291_FRP.pdf

No, really?  Forgive me if I think you been smoking something.

Category: .fb, News | Comments Off
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 23, 2009

‘Storm in a tea cup’ rubbish. Why do some women want all men, especially educated ones, to be dead from the waist down?

A university leader has caused controversy by saying curvy female students are a “perk of the job”. For us who work in the real world so are curvy workmates. Unfortuantely for me working in technology there is a shortage of those

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8270475.stm

Category: News | Comments Off
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 23, 2009

Will someone tell the former BBC One controller to go away (being polite). Apparently he says BBC’s iPlayer users should be charged to use the service. Oh no, you don’t get paid for doing this twice. We pay a licence fee (a disguised tax) for BBC services and iPlayer was devloped with that money. Sorry mate unless you want to hand back the devlopment costs to us in a reduction in licence fee, you can go fly a kite.

It is amazing how the BBC tries it on in so many disguises.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8270663.stm

Category: News | Comments Off
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 17, 2009

The estimate for the cost of identity fraud to the UK Economy – £1.2 billion or around £25 for every adult in Britain. id2405

http://www.identitytheft.org.uk/cms/assets/cost_of_identity_fraud_to_the_uk_economy_2006-07.pdf

CIFAS is the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service with 270 Members. The registration are classified as follows :

0 Protective Registration Recorded at request of the person named or to protect the identity of a deceased person.
1 False Identity Fraud Use of a false name with an address.
2 Victim of Impersonation Use, by another person, of this name and/or address.
3 Application Fraud (Facility Granted) An application/proposal for any facility with one or more material falsehoods in the information provided – the facility was granted.
4 Application Fraud (Facility Refused) An application/proposal for any facility with one or more material falsehoods in the information provided – the facility was refused.
5 Conversion Conversion (disposal or sale) of goods (to which the hirer/buyer does not have title) under a hire-purchase, conditional sale, contract hire, leasing or rental agreement.
6 First Party Fraud Opening an account or other facility for a fraudulent purpose, or the fraudulent misuse of an account or facility.
7 Aiding & Abetting Aiding, abetting or assisting, or conspiring with, another or others to fraudulently procure credit, hire or other facilities, or other product or service.
8 Insurance Fraud The making of a claim(s) under one or more insurance policy(ies) with one or more material falsehoods or by presenting a false or forged document.

Category: News | Comments Off
Tags: